


Make a Coffee Wish

by penumbria



Category: NCIS
Genre: Canonesque Homophobic Comments, Canonesque Transphobic Comment, Canonical Minor Character Death Referenced, Competent Tony DiNozzo, Gen, Possibly Pre-Slash, Tony/Gibbs if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21759541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penumbria/pseuds/penumbria
Summary: Tony wants to honor Chris Pacci after his death and comes up with a unique idea.
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo & Jethro Gibbs
Comments: 17
Kudos: 389
Collections: 2019 NCIS Secret Santa Gift Exchange





	Make a Coffee Wish

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ytteb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ytteb/gifts).



> I don't own NCIS and this doesn't make me any money.
> 
> This was written for the 2019 NCIS Secret Santa as a gift for Ytteb. Thank you to my art elf and my beta.

Tony DiNozzo waited at his desk, just checking over non-urgent emails on his computer while he waited for Kate and McGee to finish their reports. His own was done, and he needed to get theirs before sending them all onto Gibbs. 

Then he needed to talk to his boss about something that he didn’t want the junior agents to hear. But Tony knew they would be out the door as soon as their reports were complete. It had been a long few days on a hot case and they were all worn out.

And Tony was proven correct when McGee sent Tony his report via email and was wishing him goodnight seconds later.

Five minutes after McGee left the bullpen, Kate’s report dinged in Tony’s inbox, and he muttered, “Finally,” under his breath. Unfortunately, Kate heard him and sauntered over as she pulled on her purse.

“What’s the matter, Tony? Got a hot date tonight? Better are sure to check the package first. Unless you really did like tonguing that he/she.” She chuckled as she headed towards the elevator while Tony bit his tongue, literally, to keep from responding to her “joke”.

Tony finished looking over McGee’s report, made a few minor changes and did the same for Kate’s. He sent all three to Gibbs’ inbox and hit print. Gibbs preferred a hard copy of the reports and it wasn’t like they wouldn’t need to be printed out for the case file anyway.

Once he had the reports in hand, Tony walked over to Gibbs’ desk and laid them down in the physical mail inbox. “Reports are done and dusted, Boss. McGee is getting better at being concise and Kate is still adding personal thoughts in her summaries, but I amended them and sent them back showing the corrections I made.”

Gibbs grunted and picked up the folder as Tony continued, “So, I know we aren’t on call next weekend but I wanted to let you know I’m putting in for vacation time anyway, just in case. I’ll be in town but I won’t be available to work cases.”

Gibbs looked up at Tony over the report folder. “Rule three, DiNozzo.”

Tony frowned. “I’ll have my phone but I won’t be able to come in on Saturday or Sunday. I have firm plans and can’t drop them. So, I’m taking a couple of vacation days. It’s already been approved by HR but I wanted to let you know anyway. It should be a moot point. We aren’t on call, we aren’t even the backup team next weekend. But it’s happened before, several times, so I made sure I’d get the time off.”

Gibbs’ eyes narrowed. “You’re babbling. And repeating yourself, DiNozzo. Your yabba yabba usually has an actual point. What exactly will you be doing next weekend that you had to guarantee you wouldn’t be called into work?”

Tony gulped. “It’s personal. Sort of.”

“It ain’t a date. You wouldn’t care this much about canceling a date.”

Tony shook his head. “No. It’s - I’ve been going round and round and thinking and - I just - it’s been a few months since Chris died and his funeral and all of that and the baseball season started and it made me realize again, he wasn’t around. No one sent out draft notices for the in-office fantasy league. And Kate and her so sweet jokes about Voss haven’t helped.” 

“Chris’ will had specified that he didn’t want flowers at his funeral from tons of people.”

Gibbs nodded. “Not unusual.”

“No. And he asked that in lieu of flowers people could make donations to the Make a Wish Foundation. He had personal experience with them, his niece had terminal cancer, and they sent her to New York City and got tickets to several Broadway shows and Radio City Music Hall, too. And backstage tours and meeting the casts one on one. She evidently loved plays and the theater. Chris said it made her last few months wonderful. And it helped the family, to know she got to live one of her dreams before she died.”

Gibbs nodded. “So, what’s that got to do with this next weekend?”

“Well, I was talking with a couple of my frat brothers about it, and we came up with this idea. Next weekend is the 4th of July and DC is gonna be pretty busy. One of my frat brothers is going to rent a storefront and buy the equipment for it and another couple will donate the supplies. It’s gonna be a pop-up coffee shop. And after the weekend ends, depending on how it went, we’ll see about making it a regular thing, hire people and all. But this time, I’ll run it and all the proceeds, every dime of it, will go to Make a Wish in Chris’ name.”

“How do you think you're gonna be able to run an entire coffee shop on your own on a holiday weekend?”

Tony shrugged. “It’s my contribution to this. Others are donating the space and the coffee and machines and pastries and cups and napkins and whatever. I’m donating my time.”

“You want it to work out, you need help, DiNozzo. Coffee shop ain’t like a coffee cart you could run with one man. Need at least two.”

“Well, I’ll make it work somehow, Gibbs.”

“Ya don’t think Abby and Kate would help?”

Tony scoffed, “Abby would make it all about her. Unless it is Habitat or her nuns, she sees charity as something to promote her thoughts and feelings. She’d want to split the proceeds and that’s just not gonna happen. And Kate still can’t even remember Chris’ name half the time. And she only knows it at all because he was murdered. To her, when he was alive, Chris was just the guy on the other side of the partition. And I have no desire to spend my weekend constantly being reminded that I kissed the person who viciously murdered a good friend of mine. So, no, Gibbs. I will handle it on my own.”

“You’ll have company. I drink enough coffee. I can help ya serve it. Chris was my friend, too, ya know.”

Tony’s eyes met Gibbs, and he looked at him long and hard before smiling. “Thanks, Boss.”

_Saturday, July 3 - Sunday, July 4_

Tony and Gibbs walked into the coffee shop around 3 in the morning. The place had been set up with the electricity and plumbing over the last week and the furniture and equipment for the coffee and pastries had been installed the day before. But the food and drink needed to be prepared and the incidentals set up before they opened the doors at 6.

Tony turned to Gibbs as he punched in the alarm code and relocated the door. “First things first. We need to divide the duties. One of us needs to run the cash register and take orders while the other one makes the drinks and food. Well, the food won’t really be getting made. Nothing will be cooked. At most, it’ll go in the toaster oven or the microwave. But, I guess that could be called making it.”

“DiNozzo! Don’t make me head slap you. Calm down! And I’ll make the food and coffees. I drink enough of it. I can make it for other people.”

“Um, it isn’t just coffee. It’ll be tea, too. And lattes and cappuccinos and specialty drinks. I mean, we won’t have a drink menu like Starbucks, but it isn’t just a choice of black or decaf. Though we have those, too.”

“Fine. Show me how to work these fancy machines and write down the steps to each specialty drink and I’ll handle it.”

“You sure, Boss? I mean, you can’t even work your cell most of the time.”

“Don’t need to. You reboot it for me. But you really want me taking orders from customers? Interacting with the idiots ordering these froufrou drinks?”

Tony bit his lip. “Uh, no. On second thought, you’re pretty smart and I think if I show you, you’ll be able to pick up on how to make the drinks, quick enough. Just think of it as KP duty, yeah, Boss?”

“Oo-rah!”

Over the next several hours, Tony taught Gibbs how to use the various equipment to make the various drinks on the menu and where to find the different supplies when the first sets ran out. Tony set up the cash register and set out the napkins and stirrers and the self serve creamers while Gibbs stocked the coffee beans and cups and filled the pastry case.

At exactly 6, Tony unlocked the door and set the sign on the sidewalk: “Make a Coffee Wish Pop-Up Coffee Shop” and underneath “All proceeds go to the Make a Wish Foundation”.

Within an hour and a half, there was a steady stream of customers coming into the shop and Tony was using his best schmoozing, flirty chatter to keep them happy as Gibbs filled the orders, slowly at first but then with more confidence. 

By 8, when he got the first order for a truly crazy drink comes in, a double shot light on the soy cinnamon chai mochaccino, no whip, sprinkles, and another shot on top, he handles it without even wanting to head slap the customer. Though during a slow time when the line has disappeared for a few minutes, he does take the opportunity to head slap DiNozzo, lightly.

“What was that for, Boss?”

“Snickering when you handed me the over ten words for a single drink order slip. People need to learn to drink it black.”

“You don’t drink it black, Boss, you drink it like tar.”

“Hmmph.” The bell over the door jingled as a group of people entered. “Back to work, DiNozzo.”

“Yes, Boss!”

The coffee shop was pretty busy all day with very few downtimes and when they locked up for the night after a very long day where they grabbed food and breaks in ten to fifteen-minute snatches when the line vanished, it was with exhaustion dragging them down. But the deposit bag was filled with several thousand dollars.

“Go home, DiNozzo. Ya did good, but we gotta be back here before dawn again tomorrow.”

Tony yawned, “Sure do, Boss. No working on the boat tonight, right? Need you on your toes again for customers in the morning. Likely to be even busier, on the actual 4th. Gotta remember to bring dinner to heat up when I get a chance. Don’t mind the pastries for lunch but my stomach is really growling at me, having nothing but that all day.”

“Good idea. We can stick something in the fridge in the back where the extras are kept.”

Tony shoots him a look.

“What? Even I can’t live on just coffee. Can’t live without coffee. But need food to go with it.”

Tony snorted and waved as he got in his car to drive home and catch a few hours sleep before he had to get up and get ready for another day of coffee shop mayhem.

As they expected, the next day, the actual holiday, was busier than the day before. They hadn’t arrived nearly as early, there being much less to set up, but still dawn wasn’t in sight when they turned off the alarm. Customers were actually waiting outside when Tony unlocked the doors at 6. The first one in line helped him set up the sign and asked, “How long you all gonna be here?”

Tony smiled. “If you mean our hours today, we close tonight at 10:30, just after the fireworks. If you mean as a pop-up coffee shop, we close tonight at 10:30, just after the fireworks. This was just a charitable endeavor for the holiday weekend to raise money in memory of a friend who died and really supported Make a Wish. All of the supplies, from the storefront to the coffee cups and tea leaves were donated, as is our time. When the sign says all proceeds it means all. For this weekend. We can’t be here longer, we’ve got regular jobs.”

The customer nodded. “Just a great spot for a coffee shop is all.”

Tony nodded. “It might reopen as one in a month or two but more of a regular one. We’re looking into it, the overhead and all, long term. This was just a special occasion for a special reason.”

The man nodded. “I hear ya.”

Tony slid behind the cash register as the line took shape behind the man. “What can I get for you?”

“Two black coffees, one with whipped and cinnamon, one with two shots of espresso. And two everything bagels, toasted, with cream cheese.”

The day continued and Tony took orders, ranging from simple like black coffee with two sugars to complex like large iced chai, light on the ice, with whip with caramel sauce and chocolate sprinkles. The line barely let up for more than five minutes at a time and was rarely less than three people deep. The two men took breaks on the fly during the day and covered for each other when they needed to step away.

The flow finally slowed down and the line disappeared when the fireworks began and Tony and Gibbs ate a late dinner and began cleaning up. A few people stopped in after the fireworks on their way back to their home or hotel but it was only a dozen or so orders before they locked the door at 10:43, just 13 minutes past their planned closing time.

Tony totaled the cash register and tip jar, which would be folded into the donation while Gibbs took care of the trash, recycling, and sweeping up. 

Tony sat back with a sigh. “I think Chris would be pleased with this weekend. Between yesterday and today, we made nearly 50 thousand dollars for Make a Wish.”

“Fifty grand? For two days?”

“We were really busy and coffee ain’t cheap, Boss. _You_ should know that. Plus, all of the overhead and expenses are covered. So, what we made is all going to the charity.”

“Well then, yeah, we did good for Chris. Good job, Tony.”

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas Ytteb! I hope you enjoy your gift!
> 
> Santa


End file.
